U.S. Navy

Aircraft carriers USS John C. Stennis, front, and USS George Washington sail in formation with an escort vessel during a training exercise in waters near Guam, earlier this month.

TOKYO Its probably just a coincidence; no need to worry yet. But the U.S. has quietly assembled a powerful air, land and sea armada not far from where Japan and China are squaring off over disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Two Navy aircraft carrier battle groups and a Marine Corps air-ground task force have begun operating in the Western Pacific, within easy reach of the Senkaku Islands. Thats where Japanese and Chinese patrol boats are engaged in an increasingly tense standoff.

Chinese vessels have repeatedly entered territorial waters around the small islands in recent weeks and Coast Guard vessels from Japan and Taiwan fired water cannons at each other last week. The islands are controlled and administered by Japan, but claimed by both China and Taiwan.

No warships have been directly involved in the confrontations, so far. But China has vowed to continue sending patrol vessels into territorial waters and Japan has assembled scores of Coast Guard vessels to defend the islands.

The U.S. hasnt taken sides in the ownership dispute, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for cooler heads to prevail. Nonetheless, U.S. officials have stated clearly that the Senkakus fall under the U.S.-Japan security treaty, which would require the U.S. to come to Japans aid in case of attack.

Navy officials confirmed Sunday that the USS George Washington carrier strike group has begun operating in the East China Sea, near the disputed islands. The USS John C. Stennis group is only slightly further away in the South China Sea. Each carrier is armed with more than 80 warplanes, and strike groups typically include guided-missile cruisers and destroyers, submarines and supply ships.

In the nearby Philippine Sea, some 2,200 Marines are embarked aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard and two escorts. The Marines are equipped with amphibious assault vehicles, light armored vehicles, artillery, helicopters and Harrier fighter jets.

Carrier groups and Marine task forces often operate alone, so the convergence of the three groups in a relatively small part of the Pacific represents an unusual concentration of firepower. All three are fresh from training exercises in and around Guam. Those exercises included live-fire with missiles and joint beach landings by U.S. Marines and Japanese ground troops.

Read the rest here:

South China Sea: U.S. Fleet Nears Disputed Islands, But What For?

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

The seven residents of Pagan and Alamagan in the Northern Islands are safe and secure even as Tropical Storm Maliksi intensified in the last two days.

Francisco L. Kaipat, community worker at the Northern Islands Mayor's Office, said yesterday that they communicated with the residents of both islands via radio frequency yesterday and last Monday.

Of the seven residents, five stay on Pagan while the other two live on Alamagan, he said.

Kaipat said they get in touch with these residents through their weekly scheduled radio conference every Monday and Thursday.

During days when there is a weather disturbance, however, Kaipat disclosed that they contact the Northern Islands population more frequently to check on their safety.

Kaipat noted, though, that the residents experience a hard time communicating via radio since the gadget uses batteries that are charged using solar panels.

If there's no sun, they can't charge the battery, he added.

Kaipat said they made contact with the Northern Islands residents on Monday to inform them about the latest weather bulletin from the Emergency Management Office.

Based on their latest communication with these residents, they were already experiencing strong winds and high surf due to Tropical Storm Maliksi, he said.

Link:

Northern Islands residents safe from tropical storm

By Chris Wotton

MALAYSIAS Perhentian Islands in the South China Sea, around ten miles off the northeastern coast of western Malaysia and just forty miles south of the border with neighbouring Thailand, offer that picture perfect image of paradise you may have dreamt about endless stretches of fine white sand, clear blue sea and an equally blue sky overhead. Coral, sea turtles, jellyfish and small sharks all call the reef around the islands home, and it is easy to see why so many people both foreign tourists and Malays alike come here to relax.

Perhentian islands. Pic: Gemma Bardsley, Flickr.

Between the two main islands, Perhentian Besar meaning big Perhentian and Perhentian Kecil meaning small Perhentian, and the even smaller, uninhabited islands Susu Dara, Serenggeh and Rawa, this is an area of indisputably outstanding natural beauty that in the most part is well protected thanks to being designed part of the Pulau Redang National Marine Park. This makes littering, fishing and coral collection all illegal. Other than a communications tower on each island, there are no structures with more than two floors, only further adding to the natural beauty of the islands.

So where to stay? Accommodation is generally aimed at budget travellers which is good news for those wanting to keep costs down. There are, though, more and more top end options springing up should you wish to splash out for a more indulgent experience.

Perhentian islands by sunset. Pic: Gemma Bardsley, Flickr.

Flora Bay Resort, on the larger Perhentian Besar island, is set in the middle of the unspoilt white sand beach at Teluk Dalam, with a southern facing position that affords views of Lang Tengah, Redang and other nearby islands there are certainly worse views to wake up to! Rooms are just a few steps from the lapping waves and, like the majority of resorts on the Perhentian Islands in high season, enjoy a twenty four hour electricity supply.

Tuna Bay Resort offers beachfront wooden cabins shaded by coconut palms, some practically within touching distance of the sea and others further back with an equally stunning jungle backdrop. Air conditioning, covered terraces and tasteful bamboo furniture offer additional comfort.

Bubu Resort on Long Beach, on the smaller Perhentian Kecil island, boasts the luxurious Grape Tree Spa, where you can really make the most of your time away on the Perhentians and enjoy indulgent spa treatments from Thai and Swedish massages through to aromatherapy, foot reflexology, cucumber aloe vera face and body wraps and waxing treatments all to the backdrop of the soothing lap of waves on the white coral sand on the beach beside your spa bed. How much bliss can you ask for?

A taxi boat waiting off the Perhentian islands. Pic: Mike Villiger, Flickr.

Read the original:

Perhentian Islands: Resort round-up

For most of human history, the five rocky islets in the eye of the current diplomatic storm between China and Japan have sat in remote and irrelevant obscurity, lapped by the tropical waters of the East China Sea.

Today, leaders in Beijing are calling the barren islands "China's sacred territory since ancient times," and in Tokyo they're calling them "clearly an inherent territory of Japan."

But for generations of humbler folk on both sides, the islands have meant one thing: fish. The Chinese name for the island group, Diaoyu, means "catch fish." The Japanese name for the largest island, Uotsuri, means "fish catch."

QUIZ Think you know Asia? Take this quiz

There may be oil and gas in nearby waters, according to some surveys, making ownership of the islands and their adjacent exclusive economic zone even more attractive.

But all the tiny islands themselves have ever been good for is albatross feathers (for the fashion trade) and a Japanese-owned fish-processing plant that operated for the first 40 years of the past century.

Japan bases its claim to the islands, which it calls the Senkaku, on a cabinet decision in January 1895 whereby because there was no trace of anyone else controlling them they were deemed "terra nullius," nobody else's, and Tokyo incorporated them into its territory.

China disputes that claim, pointing to 15th-century accounts of sea voyages by Chinese envoys and a 17th-century map of China's sea defenses, among other documents, to show that "the Diaoyu islands were first discovered, named, and exploited by the Chinese," in the words of a Foreign Ministry statement.

RELATED What is behind the Diaoyu/Senkaku dispute?

Beijing says that Japan seized the islands as it was winning the Sino-Japanese war in 1895, and that they were part of another territory that Japan won in that war, Formosa (now Taiwan). At the end of World War II, Japan was forced to return Formosa to China, and Beijing has argued that it should have handed the Diaoyu/Senkaku over as well. (Taiwan also claims sovereignty over the islands.)

Original post:

Why China, Japan dispute islands once home to just albatross feathers and fish

The China and Japan face off over five islands has sunk relations to a 40-year low - the worst since diplomatic relations began. But the sabre rattling is just for show, say analysts.

The Great Hall of the People, the heart of Beijing's ceremonial political life, should have been ringing last month with toasts and speeches to fete the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Japan.

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition

But the banquet rooms sat silent, the celebrations canceled.

The two neighbors' ancient enmity had ensnared them again, this time in a territorial dispute over a handful of remote islands.

Hotheads on both sides of the East China Sea were calling for war. Even the coolest heads could not rule that prospect out.

"Relations are worse than they have ever been in 40 years," says Liu Jiangyong, a professor of Japanese politics at Tsinghua University in Beijing. "I don't see much chance of a war; but I think Japan is preparing for one, and we should, too."

The possibility of armed conflict between the world's second- and third-largest economies is enough to scare governments around the globe. It is especially alarming to the United States, whose alliance with Japan would draw it into any fighting.

Beijing and Tokyo both claim sovereignty over five islands in the East China Sea, known as the Diaoyu in China and as the Senkaku in Japan, which administers them.

Originally posted here:

China and Japan face off: Tiny islands, big dispute